Vice President's Secretariat
Skill development should become a national mission: Vice President
Follow Gandhi Ji’s Nai Talim; Teach children to respect human labor and social harmony and tolerance;
Lays foundation for the construction of Kaushal Bhawan;
Private Sector must step in to train rural youth;
VP lauds the valor, courage and commitment of Wing Commander Abhinandan, Says youth must draw inspiration from him
Lays Foundation Stone for Kaushal Bhawan
The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that skill development should become a national mission. He lauded the valor, courage and commitment of Wing Commander, Abhinandan Varthaman and said that he has made the nation proud with his bravery and professional integrity in the face of adversity. He called Shri Abhinanadan and his family who have been serving the nation, a shining example in the service of the nation as he asked the younger generation to draw inspiration from him.
Addressing the gathering after laying foundation stone for the construction of Kaushal Bhawan, here today, Shri Naidu stressed up on the need to work as team India to build a stronger India, a more developed India, an India that was capable of defending itself against hostile forces and disruptive designs.
The world and especially South East Asia has numerous problems like poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and low employable skills. We should wage a war against these, he added.
Calling youth the agents for transformation, the Vice President asked the youth to upgrade their skill sets by using the opportunities made available by the government such as Skill India, Digital India, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna and others that were aimed at empowering youth to match the needs of the 21st century job market.
The Vice President called up on the Private sector to step in supporting government’s efforts skill the youth of India, especially the ones living in rural areas.
Expressing concern over the rising urban-rural divide, Shri Naidu wanted united efforts by all agencies including the private sector to create healthcare, rural employment, skill training facilities at rural areas at par with the urban areas.
Quoting Maharma Gandhi’s Nai Talim, the Vice President stressed that youth and children should not just be trained to acquire skills but should be taught to respect human labor and social harmony and tolerance. One must learn to respect every job, he added.
Shri Naidu said that training the youth and children on rural crafts by way of vocational training and empowering them to stand on their own should pave the way for Gram Swaraj and create the possibility of large-scale self-employment in rural and urban areas.
The Minister of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and Petroleum & Natural Gas, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, the Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Smt. Meenakashi Lekhi and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.
Following is the text of Vice President's address in English & Hindi:
"कौशल भवन का शिलान्यास करते हुए, मैं भारत के स्वर्णिम भविष्य के प्रति आशान्वित हूं। देश का भविष्य युवाओं के सपनों में आकार लेता है उनका पुरूषार्थ ही देश की नियति तय करेगा वही देश की संपदा है। आज इस शुभ अवसर पर मुझे अटल जी के प्रेरक कविता की पंक्तियां याद आती हैं। उन्होंने देश की भावी नियति के लिए नव दधीची युवाओं के पुरूषार्थ का आह्वाहन करते हुए लिखा था :
“आहुति बाकी यज्ञ अधूरा
अपनों के विध्नों ने घेरा
अंतिम जय का वज्र बनाने
नव दधीची हड्डियां गलाए
आओ फिर से दिया जलाएं”
India is a young, aspirational country. 65% of our population is below 35 years of age. 62% of our population is in the working age group of 15-59 years. We have a work force of 48 crores and more than a crore join the work force every year.
Today, we have a unique opportunity. There is a huge demographic dividend waiting to be realized. The challenge is to train and upgrade youth’s skill levels to enable them to effectively respond to rapid changes of the 21st century.
We cannot afford to lose this opportunity. Skills and knowledge are driving forces of economic growth and social development for any country.
Countries with higher levels and better standards of skills adjust more effectively to the challenges and opportunities in domestic and international job markets.
According to the various estimates, by 2022 there are going to be about 5 crore jobs in Retail Business sector, 1.42 crore in Health and Wellness, and more than 20 lakhs in Telecom sector. According to a study conducted last year, in Analytics and Data Science disciplines alone 45% new jobs are estimated to be available. About 65 lakh additional jobs will be created in the next 7 years in software sector, according to the recently approved Centre’s National Policy for Software Products. There are opportunities.... there are jobs ..... there are human resources - all that we need to do is to equip people with requisite skill-sets to take advantage of the new openings in different sectors. We have a demographic advantage with 65% of our population being below the age of 35 years. It is a boon, of course. But the challenge lies in making them skill-ready. According to a report, less than 5% of our total workforce has undergone formal skill training compared to 68% in the UK, 75% in Germany, 52% in the USA, 80% in Japan and 96% in South Korea. We are aiming to skill 40 crore people by 2022. This is a big challenge and ambitious target. We have to work in that direction dedicatedly. Opportunities are there and so are challenges. Let us understand them and make sustained efforts to achieve targets not only by the Central and State Governments but also the private sector.
Our efforts over last few years have begun to bear fruits now in improving the economy. Every prominent rating and ranking agency in the world like Moody’s or IMF and World Bank has not only commended our economic growth but has also considered our growth to be essential for overall growth in global economy. Today, we are the fastest growing economy of the world with an average growth rate of 7.3% over the last four years. We are the sixth largest economy in the world and are poised to become a US $ 5 Trillion economy in the near future. This will be possible only when our youth contributes to our economy.
In the last four years we have been able to attract FDI worth US $ 250 billion. This shows the confidence the global investors have in Indian economy. We have reached 77th position on Ease of Doing Business index from 142 in 2014.
India is now world’s second largest hub of Start Ups. 39000 new Start Ups have been registered during last four years. It is matter of added satisfaction that 44% of these Start Ups are registered in Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns. This indicates that the benefits of our reforms are reaching the entrepreneurs of smaller cities.
We have improved our position in almost every global economic rating and ranking. In the Global Innovation Index we have reached 57th position in 2018 from 76th in 2014. Our Start ups provide viable possibilities to global investors including the Alternative Investment Funds that are meant for investment mainly in new businesses and Start Ups. In the last four years, the investment through such Alternative Investment Funds has increased 20 times to reach Rs. 80000 crores. It indicates the confidence global investors have in our Start Ups.
It is important to nurture the talent of our youth to disrupt the status quo and lead radical innovations. Aligned with our growing economic profile, we have promoted skill development as a National Mission.
Empowering the youth by skill-building is a powerful tool in current times. It will enhance the efficacy and quality of the work for improved productivity and growth in the future.
इस स्थिति को सुधारने के लिए ही सरकार ने 2014 में एक अलग कौशल विकास विभाग की स्थापना की। 2015 में कौशल तथा उद्यम विकास के लिए नयी राष्ट्रीय नीति की घोषणा की गई। प्रधानमंत्री कौशल विकास योजना के तहत युवाओं को प्रशिक्षित किया जाना है।
It gives me pleasure to see that various initiatives and interventions of the Government are empowering youth. Various programmes of the Ministry have ensured that training courses and modules are mapped as per local industry requirements. I am happy to learn that more than a crore youth are being imparted skill training annually under various programmes of the Government. 56 lakh youth have been trained under flagship Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna, since its inception.
Recognition of Prior Learning has been introduced to give formal recognition to prior informal skills and learning experiences of an individual. More than 10 lakh persons have been certified under this scheme after short bridge courses.
Today, we have more than 550 Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras  across districts of the country which are state of the art model centers of skilling in courses relevant to the local industries.
Number of ITIs has increased by 40% in last four years to 15000, with corresponding increase in seats by 56%. Student enrollment has increased by 28% during the same period. The ITIs have been asked to develop courses in accordance with industry’s demands.
Training in futuristic skill sets like Artificial Intelligence, Big Data Analysis, Robotics, 3D Printing is being imparted under the Mission. This will help the trainees to make a head-start in remunerative global job market.
We have amended the Apprenticeship Act. The National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme has been launched to promote apprenticeship in industry. The total number of apprentices engaged increased from 2.15 Lakhs in 2014 to 5.05 Lakhs in 2018.
An important part of National Skill Development Mission is to promote Vocational Education in Schools. Vocational education has been introduced in more than 9000 schools across the country. More than 7 Lakh students are annually getting trained on 73 accredited courses across 20 sectors.
इस संदर्भ में मेरा सुझाव होगा कि गांधी जी द्वारा प्रस्तावित नई तालीम से प्ररेणा ली जाय। जैसा कि गांधी जी का विचार था कि नयी तालीम से न केवल छात्रों को कौशल प्राप्त होगा बल्कि उनमें मानव श्रम के प्रति आस्था पैदा होगी और सामाजिक सौहार्द और सहिष्णुता भी पैदा होगी। मेरा सुझाव होगा कि खादी और ग्रामोद्योग आयोग के माध्यम से छोटे शहरों, कस्बों और ग्रामीण विद्यालयों में खादी ओर ग्रामीण उद्योगों, शिल्पों का प्रशिक्षण कराये जाने पर विचार किया जाय। इससे ग्रामीण और कस्बाई क्षेत्रों में बड़े पैमाने पर स्वरोजगार की संभावना पैदा होगी।
I am happy to learn that the Ministry has done a skill gap assessment of most of the States. This will help the trainees and training institutions to make choices of training courses accordingly. I believe that similar exercise to study global skill gaps is being undertaken.
As we aspire to exploit the job prospects in global market for our skilled man power, our training modules should be comparable with global benchmarks. With the massive expansion of training facilities, there is also a need to ensure quality of training, availability of quality training infrastructure, qualified faculty and state of the art curriculum.
Also, we have to increase the placement/self-employment after the training. It is essential that after the training, the placement should be facilitated or the trainees should be guided to set up their own enterprises.
यह आवश्यक है कि पाठ्यक्रम समाप्त करने के बाद युवाओं को रोजगार प्राप्त हो या उन्हें स्वरोजगार स्थापित करने में सहायता दी जाय। प्रशिक्षण के बाद का मार्गदर्शन और सहायता भी आवश्यक है।
सरकार द्वारा प्रारंभ की गई मुद्रा योजना की सफलता यह दिखाती है कि देश में स्थानीय स्तर पर उद्यम लगाने की अपार संभावना है। पिछले 4 वर्षों में 15 करोड़ लोगों को मुद्रा ऋण दिये गये जिसमें लगभग 30% ऐसे नये उद्यमी है जिन्होंने पहली बार बैंक ऋण प्राप्त किया है। मैं आशा करूंगा कि प्रशिक्षण के दौरान युवाओं को वित्तीय सहायता के लिए सरकारी कार्यक्रमों और नीतियों के विषय में भी बताया जाय।
Young Friends,
India is poised for a big transition. Youth are the agents of this transformation. I call upon each one of you to use the available programmes and expanded opportunities.
India is transforming and reinventing itself rapidly, inspired by PM Modi’s call to you “Reform, Perform and Transform”.
I urge each one of you to keep learning and improve your skills. Be lifelong learners.
We should work as team India to build a stronger India, a more developed India, an India that is capable of defending itself against hostile forces and disruptive designs. Like we have demonstrated a few days ago in a fitting response to our neighbour’s inaction to check the rising tide of cross-border terrorism. Our fight is against terror in all its manifestations, not against any religion, as our External Affairs Minister made it clear in her address at the OIC meeting. The world and especially South East Asia has numerous problems like poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and low employability skills. We should wage a war against these.
मित्रों,
आज भारत 130 करोड़ आशाओं, अपेक्षाओं और संभावनाओं का देश है। यह नये अवसरों का देश है। यह कौशल भवन उन संभावनाओं और अवसरों का केंद्र होगा। मैं आशा करता हूं कि यह भवन राष्ट्रीय कौशल विकास मिशन की सफलता का स्मारक होगा। अपने वक्तव्य का अंत मैं, राष्ट्रकवि मैथिलीशरण गुप्त जी की कविता से करूंगा जिसमें हमारे युवाओं के लिए अमर संदेश है :-
“नर हो न निराश करो मन को
कुछ काम करो कुछ काम करो
जग में रह कर निज नाम करो....”
आपको आपकी भावी सफलताओं के लिए मेरी शुभकामनाऐं।
जय हिन्द।"